have still contended
These races, though so near allied:
And oft 'neath Victory's storm has bended
Now Poland's, and now Russia's side.
Which shall stand fast in such commotion,
The haughty Liakh, or faithful Russ?
And shall Slavonic streams meet in a Russian ocean--
Or _that_ dry up? This is the point for us.

Peace, peace! your eyes are all unable
To read our history's bloody table;
Strange in your sight and dark must be
Our springs of household enmity!
To you the Kreml and Praga's tower
Are voiceless all--you mark the fate
And daring of the battle-hour--
And understand us not, but hate ...

What stirs ye? Is it that this nation
On Moscow's flaming wall, blood-slaked and ruin-quench'd,
Spurn'd back the insolent dictation
Of Him before whose nod ye blench'd?
Is it that into dust we shatter'd
The Dagon that weigh'd down all earth so wearily?
And our best blood so freely scatter'd
To buy for Europe peace and liberty?

Ye're bold of tongue--but hark, would ye in _deed_ but try it
Or is the hero, now reclined in laurell'd quiet,
Too weak to fix once more Izmail's red bayonet?
Or hath the Russian Tsar ever in vain commanded?
Or must we meet all Europe banded?
Have we forgot to conquer yet?
Or rather, shall they not, from Perm to Tauris' fountains,
From the hot Colchian steppes to Finland's icy mountains,
From the grey Kreml's half-shatter'd wall,
To far Kathay, in dotage buried--
A steelly rampart close and serried,
Rise--Russia's warriors--one and all?
Then send your numbers without number,
Your madden'd sons, your goaded slaves,
In Russia's plains there's room to slumber,
And well they'll know their brethen's graves!

* * * * *

We are not sure whether we are right in yielding to the temptation of
transcribing in these sheets so many of the smaller lyrics and fugitive
pieces of our author; and whether that very charm of _form_ and
_expression_ which attract so strongly our admiration to the originals,
should not have rather tended to deter us from so difficult an attempt
as that of transposing them into another language. The chief grace and
value of such productions certainly consists less in the quantity or
weight of the gold employed in their c